Semana Santa is when all of Latin America takes a week long break. Its like Spring Break, for everybody. Javi and I decided to take advantage of the time off to go to the North Coast of Honduras before the crowds hit and it got crazy up there. We headed to Trujillo, the farthest city on the coast before the large expanse of La Mosquita, which is a huge swath of virgin jungle in Eastern Honduras.
We stayed two nights in Trujillo before heading out of town a ways to a New Zealander owned hotel called Casa Kiwi. Trujillo is a lazy and hot town, the kind of place where prime beach front property is a place where abandoned pick up trucks sit so long they are taken over by vines…..
And where cows watch the sunset on the beach……
We left on Sunday, when masses of Hondurans arrive to spend the week on the beach. We did see a bit of the action on Saturday afternoon and watched the Semana Santa beach ritual with curiosity. They show up in droves, donned in tshirts and shorts, to swim in the water in front of the town beach. Its interesting how women how other wise wear very tight jeans and bosom-revealing shirts become very modest in a swimsuit. Ladies and small children sit in the shade of the restaurants that line that beach. Trash accumulates on the sand, and major drinking goes on all day.
Having had enough of that we headed to the Kiwi hotel for a break. It was a beautiful place on its own strip of beach surrounded by miles on either side of undeveloped and uninhabited beach front property. Here are a few photos…
Part II –Alfombras
(Alfombras = Carpets)
Comayagua is famous for their Easter alfombras and processions. The town lines a path through the colonial center’s streets with intricate and colorful sawdust carpets. On Good Friday, a procession walks the carpet path through town.
People start work on the carpets at around midnight the night before the procession, which starts around 10 am on Good Friday. People work all night, carefully placing the layers of colored sawdust with cutouts, occasionally spraying it with water so the wind does not take out all their hard work. You also have to look out for the crazy street dogs who might race across the alfombra.
There are varying levels of quality, some….hmmmm…had a lot of mess ups and you could tell had a low budget. Others were beautiful and immaculate and were obviously working with more funds.
The Programa Comayagua Colonial made a carpet as well. We came in to help (Javi 11:30 pm – 5:30 am and me 3:00 – 5:30) but they had lots of help from the Escuela Taller kids so we mostly watched.
Here are a few pictures from the festivities -
Working on our carpet:
And the end result the next day:
Some of the prettier alfombras:
And the procession:
